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Bismillah Khan

بسم الله خان

–

Indian shehnai maestro (1916–2006), born Qamaruddin Khan at Dumraon in Bihar into a family of court musicians, who raised the shehnai from a ceremonial instrument to the concert stage, played at Delhi's Red Fort as India's flag was raised at independence in 1947, and received the Bharat Ratna (2001), India's highest civilian honour.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
musician
Region
South Asia
Identifiers
Wikidata

Life in time

18751900192519501975200020252050
The Colonial Era · The Contemporary Era · The Modern Era Contemporaries: Abdul Latif Chowdhury Fultali · Aden Adde · Ali Safi Golpaygani · Muazzez İlmiye Çığ · Muhammad Sarfaraz Khan Safdar

Place in the story

    Unknown (unknown)

    Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.

    In the Modern Islam Browser

    Modern Islam BrowserFigures of the last fifty years2006

    Sources

    • Bismillah Khan — English Wikipedia
    • Bismillah Khan — Arabic Wikipedia
    • Bismillah Khan — Urdu Wikipedia
    • Bismillah Khan — Wikidata
    • Bismillah Khan — The Guardian obituary (2006)
    • Bismillah Khan — BBC News (2006)
    Cite this page

    islam.museum contributors. “Bismillah Khan”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/bismillah-khan/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-31.

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    People

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